ClutchPoints
A very sad story has been written in Buffalo, and it’s time to change one of the key characters. The Bills are almost always of the best regular-season teams in the league, but they have never been able to find success in the postseason under head coach Sean McDermott.
There is no suggestion that McDermott is a poor coach and should be drummed out of the profession, but there is no reason to believe that he is the right coach for the Buffalo Bils at this point. He has taken the Bills to the playoffs seven straight times and in eight seasons out of nine, but they have always failed to get to the Super Bowl. The Bills have lost twice in the AFC title game, they always fail at the most important moments.
The losses and disappointments have piled up, but this year’s postseason performance may be the most disappointing of them all. The Bills have been stopped in the postseason by the likes of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens and Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. None of those teams made the playoffs this season.
It seemed like it was all set for the Bills to make their run. They came from behind to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card round, and that gave the sixth-seeded Bills the opportunity to face the Broncos in the divisional playoffs. Once again, the Bills came from behind to take a 4th quarter lead. However, they could not stop the Broncos from scoring on the next drive after the Bills had extended their advantage to 4 points.
The Bills defense is supposed to be McDermott’s domain. That’s how he made his bones before the Bills hired him to be their head coach prior to the 2017 season. He had been an excellent defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers when the Bills came calling.
He is now 9 years into his tenure, and he is not a championship level head coach. The Bills need to go in a new direction.
The defense has become a liability and while that unit will make plays during the course of the game, the Bills do not hold on to 4th-quarter leads in the biggest games. That was the case in the divisional playoff loss to the Broncos even though they were competing against a 2nd-year quarterback in Bo Nix who is still learning how to finish NFL games against top opponents.
The Bills had shut down the Broncos throughout the majority of the second half. Josh Allen had thrown a pair of TD passes and Matt Prater had kicked a 31-yard field goal, allowing the Bills to take a 27-23 lead after trailing 23-10 early in the third quarter.
However, the Buffalo defense could not stop Nix and the Broncos from responding late in the...
